Hey everyone! I'm reading "War and Peace"

... one small chunk at a time. I expect it will take me two years or so. When I get to the part with the socks, I'll let you all know.

http://dailylit.com/

It's actually a pretty cool site. You can sign up for works of classic literature, which are delivered daily, a couple pages at a time, to your e-mail inbox. I hope it will be an antidote to the feeling that I'm not as smart as I used to be.

Thank you all for your kind compliments regarding the quilt. It's really not that hard to do - much like knitting, it's one little step at a time, and then, suddenly, you stand back and it's an Entire Useful Object. There's even frogging, although quilters call it, "Where is the damn seam ripper?" There is also the opportunity to accumulate stash. And that's all I'll say about that. If I sewed my entire stash together, I think I could make a garage cozy.

Finishing the quilt did make me think for a bit on the power of the UFO. One quilt book I have even suggests that you not call them that; you should call them "Works in Progress," because "UFO" has too much baggage attached -- it makes it a thing to finish, not a process to enjoy.

I usually go on finishing binges, where I start tearing through UFOs, whether they're socks that need kitchnering, or quilts that need binding (my least favorite part) or sweaters that need seaming (which I used to really despise, but I'm warming up to now). Sometimes, I imagine what my descendants would do if confronted with a whole room full of unfinished work. I like to think they'd be guilted into finishing it for me, but honestly? They'd probably send it straight off to Goodwill. That usually sets me off on a finishing binge, if only because I'm afraid on some level that the UFOs would somehow bind me to the material plane and I'd have to haunt someone's arse until it occurred to them that I wanted my last earthly sweater seamed.

Wow. There's a ghost story waiting to happen. I happen to have a few inherited UFOs of my own. My grandmother quilted - colorful square patches of Hawaiian fabrics, all sorts. They would give quilt instructors fits; they mix fabric blends and nothing's quite square and the seams are in-SANE. I love them.

I've got a couple quilt tops of hers and I know that sooner or later, I'm going to have to figure out how to turn them into something useful so I can have picnics on them or put them on the couch. Not because some old Okinawan lady is haunting my arse.

Now to go knit the edge of a mobius cat bed. Unlike the Fool, I found the Magical Mobius Cast On to be really amazing.

ooh, ooh, gratutious knitblogger cat photo! It's Mab! On the quilt!